Ultra-Compact Solid-State Driver Technology for Improving the Performance & Lifetime of Laser Diode/Diode Arrays Operating at High Power

The four major objectives of this Phase II SBIR are: (1) To develop SRL’s revolutionary pulse power technology and demonstrate that it will improve the performance and lifetime of laser diodes and laser diode arrays by a factor-of-100; (2) Demonstrate that it can is compact and is capable of being packaged with a power density of 7 kW/liter; (3) Build and test a 10 kW prototype supply with the characteristics stated in (1) and (2), and (4) Integrate our technology into one or more of MDA and DoD laser systems. The combination of a smaller supply and increased diode lifetime, by two orders of magnitude, will result in MDA and DoD laser systems that are less expensive, both from an initial investment and cost-of-ownership and more compact and lighter weight. Such attributes are most important to all military systems, especially space based hardware where reliability, lifetime and compact size are essential. To insure that SRL’s breakthrough technology will be integrated into MDA and DoD laser systems, we have communicated with several system providers of military hardware.